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A quarter of a million pounds in legal fees later (funding
trips to the High Court and the House of Lords) they lost
and had to cough up another quarter of a million pounds
for the chancel repair bill itself. The Wallbanks didn’t own
all the former rectory land but under English Law a PCC
has only to find one lay rector to pay the entire costs and
although the Wallbanks had bought property with the
chancel repair liability clearly identified in the deeds
scarily the liability does not need to be mentioned in
property deeds for it to be valid: lay rectors can still be
traced by the PCC and the liability enforced. This has now
been addressed by the law and with effect from 14 October
this year (2013) PCCs must have registered chancel repair
liabilities against the title of land so purchasers can by
inspecting the registered title of a property discover
whether they have a chancel repair liability or not.
The Golden Age
The 14
th
, 15
th
and the first half of 16
th
centuries could be
called the golden age of the parish church. These were
prosperous times
and without doubt the most notable
churches of the late mediaeval period are at Cirencester,
Lavenham, Long Melford, Dedham and elsewhere in the
Cotswolds and East Anglia – wool churches of cathedral
like proportions endowed by a newly rich class of
merchants and farmers grown incredibly rich on England’s
wool trade. The fact that this new wealth was spent
building churches reflects the great piety that existed
among the English at this time. These huge churches were
full of worshippers and for the people the passing of the
year was marked with a mixture of ancient traditions
mixed in with the feasting and fasting of the liturgical
calendar. At times the old ways and the new church ways
harmonised with such ceremonies as the Beating of the
Bounds at Rogationtide when old time evil spirits were
thrashed out, new crops were given a Christian blessing
and the parish boundaries were marked and remembered.
In the 1400s instructions for parish priests complied by
John Myrk a Canon of Lilleshall in Shropshire began.:
Whenne the blynde ledeth the blynde,
Into the dyche they fallen both
.
Myrk then lists what is expected of a priest:
He must be true in heart and hand, eschew oaths, be mild
to all, put away drunkenness, gluttony, pride, sloth, and
envy. He must not frequent taverns, or make merchandise,
or indulge in wrestling, shooting, hawking, hunting,
dancing; wear cutted clothes, or piked shoes; not frequent
markets or fairs. He must wear proper clothes, must not
wear basilard or baldrick, must keep his beard and crown
shaven; be free of meat and drink to rich and poor;
forsake women, avoid foolish jesting, despise the world,
and cultivate virtue.
A basilard is a mediaeval dagger, a baldrick is a wide belt
slung over the shoulder to hold a sword. Mryk jokingly
notes that priests need no hints on gathering their tithes.
After the Black Death swept through England in the 1340s
discontent with the system of unfree labour known as
serfdom and the high taxes to fund the Hundred Years War
against the French finally boiled over into the Peasants
Revolt of 1381 when Wat Tyler and his men marched on
London. The rebels were inspired by the sermons of the
radical priest John Ball. Excommunicated for his political
beliefs Ball was without parish or cure but this only made
him more of a threat as he became a roving preacher or
hedge priest
. His biggest audience came in 1381 when he
addressed the rebels on Blackheath as they prepared to
descend upon the city:
When Adam delved and Eve span,
Who was then the gentleman?
Ball’s head ended up on a pike on London Bridge but his
words are still remembered more than 600 years later.
Below: John Ball preaching to Wat Tyler’s rebels